In August this last summer in the late afternoon I took a soda and my binoculars and went to the back porch to relax and watch some wild life. There is always lots of activity on my acre of land. This time there were about a dozen pair of doves grazing on the south side of the backyard beyond the trees. There was plenty of seed on the ground. We had lots of rain in July and the weeds were everywhere. The doves, loving it, were eating seeds up as fast as they could. They were so intent on feeding that they did not seem to notice me or anything else around them.

It was then that I noticed two Blue Jays diving and flying around in quite a dither. Something had them quite agitated. One Jay would fly around and then dart in and out toward one of our pine trees. All the time he was squawking at the top of his lungs. I had never heard such a racket from them before. Obviously he did not like what he saw in ’his’ pine tree.

Focusing on the pine tree, I looked carefully for the irritant. About two thirds the way up the trunk was a beautiful Boreal Owl. He was perched on a limb with his back resting against the trunk of the tree. His demeanor was calm like he had not a care in the world but he kept looking back and forth around the yard. I’m sure he saw the Jay’s, but seemed to not be bothered. However the Jay’s were quite upset at his being there in ’their’ tree.

I watched for a while. It was very entertaining and lots of fun. Those birds were quite a show. I could not have planned it if I had tried. They seemed to never tire or flitting around trying to get the Owl to go away. I don’t think the Jay’s succeeded. They probably gave up in frustration.

When I retired for the night the show was still going on. One Jay would dive toward the pine tree and then the other Jay would take his turn. Since I needed to get up early the next day, I finally left the show and went to bed. Rising early the next morning, I got up and went out to see how things were in the back yard. The Owl had gone, probably bored with the whole thing. The Jay’s were happily content in ’their’ pine tree. All the world was right again in my back yard.

Roger Johnson